


The Arcane Olympiad

by TheDoctorIsIcecube



Category: Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017), The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: (Except Bruce and Tony), (No death in the fic), All the Avengers are alive, Alternate Universe - Hogwarts, Autistic Peter, Deaf Clint Barton, Fluff, Friendship, M/M, Past Character Death, Peter Parker-centric, Team as Family, Trans Peter Parker, Trans Tony Stark, Werewolf Bruce, teenage avengers
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-08-10
Updated: 2017-08-10
Packaged: 2018-12-13 18:22:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,686
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11765706
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheDoctorIsIcecube/pseuds/TheDoctorIsIcecube
Summary: When Peter tried out for the Hogwarts Arcane Olympiad team, he was expecting a short trip to a couple of other countries to gain advanced experience in Arithmancy. He was expecting it to be short, and nothing much would change.He didn't expect to gain a huge family and become close to all kinds of people he didn't think it was possible for him to relate to. He never, ever expected that it would change his life forever.





	The Arcane Olympiad

‘TRYOUTS TODAY AT 5PM SHARP,’ the poster read, in very large and aggressive letters. ‘JOIN THE HOGWARTS ARCANE OLYMPIAD TEAM!’ Peter blinked, the bright red lettering leaving a faint image behind his eyes for a moment. Despite the loudness of the poster, this actually seemed like a cool thing to do.

Professor Stark had mentioned it to him a few days before when he was in an after lessons study session. He’d recommended that Peter try out for the Arithmancy spot on the team, which was admittedly very exciting because he could have told anyone in sixth year to try out for it too but he hadn’t. He’d chosen Peter. 

“Are you coming along to this?” He glanced over at Ned, who was squinting at the poster by his side. “I’m gonna try out for Arithmancy. Professor Stark thinks I have a really good chance at it. Hopefully I don’t lose out to a sixth-year…”

“I wanna focus on my OWLs,” Ned said, though he looked a bit bummed about it. Logically, Peter should also be focusing on his exams that were coming up pretty soon now, actually, but he could do an extra-curricular. He liked Arithmancy, and it would be really cool if he could do extra stuff for that and he would get the chance to have a great experience abroad. OWLs were peanuts in comparison and he was doing fine at the moment anyway.

“OWLs are important, but this is...this is life.” Peter grinned, checking the wristwatch that he was amazed still worked inside of Hogwarts. It was 4:45pm- definitely time to head along to those tryouts soon. “You gonna come along and wish me luck, at least?”

“Sure,” he said with a shrug, but Peter definitely saw him glancing at his books and revision notes for his OWLs. Ugh, it was early December still, they didn’t need to study yet. At least, not quite yet. “You’re not gonna be long though, right?”

“You don’t even have to watch it,” Peter promised. “I just don’t want to walk in alone.”

“I get it.” Ned nudged his shoulder in a reassuring sort of way, then turned to head towards the large Transfiguration classroom that was being used for tryouts. Peter followed him, going over Arithmancy charts in his head.

There was a whole group of people he knew inside, but there were far more people he didn’t know at all. Of course. Because his subject was probably the least popular subject ever to be offered at Hogwarts. He bet there were loads of people here for Charms or DADA, and because he didn’t really mix in those circles he only knew the handful of Ravenclaws who had showed up.

“D’you mind if I leave to go revise now?” Ned was looking rather nervously around the room, so Peter nodded and smiled at the relieved ‘thank you’ that Ned called over his shoulder on his way out of the room. Well. Now he was alone in a room full of incredibly smart people. He just had to try not to be too intimidated.

“Peter!” Professor Stark called, and naturally this meant that all attention was now on him, the tiniest person in the room except the little second years who thought that they could get into Charms because they read a year ahead. “Come on, over to this table. There aren’t many people trying for Arithmancy.”

“Hi, Professor.” Peter obediently walked over, dumping his bag down by the edge of the table and biting his lip nervously. There were three sixth-years at the table, all of whom had their noses buried in Arithmancy textbooks. He, stupidly, hadn’t thought to bring his.

“I’ve got your notebook,” he said, tossing it over to him. This wasn’t one of Peter’s many notebooks, it was a folder full of all his essays from this year, both from classwork and homework and all the extra work he did. Saved, phew. He smiled at Professor Stark, who grinned back. “You left it yesterday evening.”

“Thanks, Professor.” Peter settled back in his chair, opening up the folder of essays and starting to scan them all, one by one. It would take a while, but at least he now had something to read. The science and magic of numbers was his favourite thing, he could read his own essays for hours if necessary.

Mostly, this was great for just getting his mind in the zone for the patterns of numbers and letters and their meanings. Getting submerged in the theory got his mind firing, working so hard in a way that it never did if he was doing something boring like Transfiguration. Which, he supposed, also had some pretty deep theory behind it, but it was just a little bit too magical for his liking. Arithmancy at least had some ties to the muggle world that he had grown up in, in the form of numbers. Numbers made sense, always. They didn’t change like magic did.

“Okay, kids, it’s time to start,” Professor Stark said, and the grand total of four of them put their books down. “I want us to win, so I’m taking this seriously for once and I’ve made some tests for you to do. These are NEWT level, so don’t worry if there are a couple of things you don’t know, we have almost a year to train you up in all that. Just do what you can.” He fished a sheaf of paper from his bag.

Peter accepted the poorly-stapled booklet handed to him (he’d given Profesor Stark the stapler as a Christmas present last year and he loved it but also wasn’t quite sure how to use it) and opened it up. The first question was something that he had covered in his extra reading only last week. Perfect.

He mostly breezed through the test to the extent he was slightly suspicious. Maybe he was missing something really obvious? The problem was that everything linked up, everything worked, and if it worked then it was right. When he was done, he put his hand up and Professor Stark handed him a sheet of paper with a series of essay questions on it. At the top, it said ‘pick one and write a detailed plan as well as why you chose that question’. Of course; the professor hated marking essays.

The planning was easy, too- the questions all looked suspiciously similar to ones that he had covered in his reading and his previous notes. Peter was starting to wonder if this test was made for him, honestly. It certainly seemed that way. He didn’t mind, because he really wanted this opportunity, but...he felt bad if he was taking it away from other people. He wanted these other people that he barely knew (he knew Liz from his house and he really wouldn’t mind if she got it, but he didn’t know the other two) to get it if they were better than him.

But then again, this test was proving that he was good at Arithmancy, wasn’t it? This was a test on Arithmancy and he was doing well on it. Or at least, he really hoped that he was doing well. If he wasn’t, then he was going to feel like an idiot later. He finished off his answers and handed in the paper. Professor Stark smiled and told him to watch some of the more practical trials to see if there was anyone who stood out to him.

Professor Stark always succeeded in making him feel super smart. He didn’t know why the man did it, but without fail he always made Peter feel like he was special. Maybe that was really weird for him to do that, but to Peter it just felt super nice, especially because he really didn’t get on with a lot of people in his house. Ned and MJ were his best friends, of course, and there were a few other people who were alright, but most of the other Ravenclaws just...avoided him. Which sucked, but there wasn’t a lot he could do about it.

Watching the other trials was slightly intimidating, honestly. They were all incredibly skilled and their subjects were nothing like the familiarity and quiet written work of Arithmancy. The only other groups who weren’t doing physical trials were Ancient Runes, and of course there were the Flying students, who were going through safety procedures and rules, that kind of thing.

Peter wondered if he could maybe have tried out for Potions, too- the students over there were embroiled in making something neon purple and fizzy that he couldn’t identify. Well, if he didn’t know the potion, that probably answered the question of whether or not he was good enough to try out. He would have to ask Professor Banner for some extra work to do.

He supposed it was only fair that students could only try out for one thing. It really wouldn’t be fair if someone won the spot for two subjects, because then there would be someone who didn’t get a chance to go. Peter really hoped he got a spot. It was so exciting! There were matches planned for all over the world, including some in Hogwarts. He would get to represent his school, his country, and that was so exciting. He wanted it desperately.

It wasn’t until Professor Stark rung an extremely loud bell that Peter found himself snapped out of his daydream. He winced, rubbing his ears as if the bell had hurt them physically.

“Time’s up, everyone,” he said, a little unnecessarily. “If you’ve been chosen, you’ll get a message in your common room by the end of the week. Peter, a moment?” Peter nodded, staying sat down while the other three, throwing unreadable looks at him, left the room.

“What is it, Professor?” He asked. “And thanks for bringing my notes. I didn’t see any notice of the trials happening so I only found out last minute, when you told me.”

“You were meant to all have notices in your rooms and there was one in the library,” Professor Stark said. “I’m calling foul play, and that’s something I wanted to talk to you about. Some people you aren’t exactly on friendly terms with are trying for some of the other positions and I thought I’d warn you in case you wanted to avoid that.”

“Oh. I, um…” Peter trailed off, biting his lip. Professor Stark wanted to know if he wanted to back out because he was scared of the other people trying out. Was he scared? A little. Was he going to let that stop him? “I’ll be fine, Professor. Thank you for letting me know, though.” Definitely not. People he was scared of, things he was scared of, they’d never stopped him before. There was no way they were going to stop him now.

“And when- if you get in?” Professor Stark winked at him then. “You’ll be sharing with the boys when we go elsewhere.”

“Good. They can’t do anything to me.” Peter lifted his chin, trying to look a little taller and more confident than he really was. He was short for fifteen. “And if they do, I’ll hex them.” MJ had taught him a variety of mostly harmless but very annoying curses to put on people, and he hadn’t had a chance to try any of them out yet.

“And if that happens, I’ll turn a blind eye to any alleged hexing that takes place,” Professor Stark said with a smile. “If you’re interested, it’ll be myself and Professor Banner accompanying you on any trips abroad. Run along, Peter, I’m sure I’ll be getting back to you within the next couple of days.” 

“Yes, Professor. Thank you!” Peter snatched up his bag from under the table, sprinting off out of the room to go and tell Ned the good news. And MJ, too, if he could find her, but she had a penchant for spending all of her time in hard-to-find places. She liked to think she was edgy. Honestly, she was the coolest person Peter knew.

-

MJ was sitting on top of a book shelf. In the library. Ned was trying to get her down before the librarian noticed she was up there, because woe betide MJ if she was seen doing something potentially dangerous with a book in her hand. She could break the spine if she dropped it, after all.

“Hey!” Peter called to them both from a few metres away, wincing when he was met by a chorus of shushing that seemed to come from both nowhere and everywhere all at once. “Hey,” he said again, quieter. “The tryouts went really well!”

“Nice!” Ned said. “Come on MJ, please, he’s back, which means we can now go and get dinner. Please.” MJ just shrugged from where she was sitting on top of the bookcase. Peter wanted to get well clear of here before anyone noticed she was up there.  
“Why are you sitting on a bookcase?” He frowned up at her, tilting his head right back to get a good view. She was really very high up. 

“Because I feel like it,” MJ said, and shrugged. “Congrats on the tryouts. Professor Stark loves you, so you’ll definitely get on the team. If you’re going to get dinner, bring me back something nice?”

“I’m not bringing any food here,” Ned said immediately, tugging on Peter’s arm. “And neither is Peter. Please? We’re leaving now,” he said, tugging harder, “so if you want to come, come soon?”

“See you later,” MJ said, waving and turning back to her book, effectively ending the conversation. Well, that solved something, which meant Peter could get out of here before anyone else noticed. Hopefully.

As they left, Peter heard the sound of MJ getting shouted at, and it wasn’t his fault if he quickened his pace very slightly. The librarian was scary. Luckily, MJ was also scary so she ought to be just fine. 

“So, what did they ask you about at the tryouts?” Ned turned to him, looking extremely interested. “I want to know all the questions so I can answer them and see if I could have been good enough to get onto the team.”

“Written test,” Peter said. “A whole heap of questions, some of them taken from past exams from the NEWTs and OWLs. You could ask Professor Stark for a paper, I’m sure he had spares. Only four people tried out. Also, he gave us some essay questions and got us to plan for them.”

“Huh. Doesn’t sound too bad.” Ned shrugged, carrying on down the hallway. “MJ’s right, though. Professor Stark loves you, so he’s obviously gonna pick you. Don’t forget ‘bout me when you’re a big fancy academic, yeah?”

“I’m not going to be a big fancy academic,” Peter said with a scoff, even though he desperately wanted something like that to be real. He’d love to be a teacher like Professor Stark, but it wasn’t anything he dared hope about. “It’s just a competition.”

“If you say so. I’ve heard people from this competition can go on to be advisors to the Minister of Magic. That’s, like… Really important.” 

“I know, but I don’t think I’d be much good at advising the Minister of Magic,” Peter said, shrugging. “I’d just tell them to stop being shit.”

Ned giggled. “They probably wouldn’t take your advice,” he said. “They’re useless. Did you know that muggles have higher education and stuff? They go to school after they’re done with school. But the Ministry haven’t worked that one out yet.”

“Ned, I live with my aunt, who is a muggle,” Peter said. “Of course I know what university is.”

“Huh. I forgot. I guess you aren’t going, though? They probably won’t accept your NEWTs as the right qualifications to get into university.” The conversation likely would have devolved into grumbling about wizard schooling had they not arrived in the Great Hall, at which point they were distracted by food. Important things could come back into their lives later.

**Author's Note:**

> Comments and pointers are appreciated :)


End file.
